'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast

Latest Episodes:

S7 Ep5: Children with MID, a multi-factored intervention offers best protection Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

Children with mild intellectual difficulties are often overlooked, but the evidence suggests they may face real challenges in emotional wellbeing, behaviour and education, especially when support is patchy or late.

In this Mind the Kids episode, Dr. Foteini Tseliou joins hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour and Prof Umar Toseeb to discuss the paper 'Factors Associated with Better Emotional, Behavioural and Educational Outcomes in Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities'.

They highlight three big messages: many children with mild intellectual difficulties are in mainstream schools and may not be formally identified; peer relationships emerge as one of the strongest protective factors across outcomes; and it is the accumulation of support across home, school and friendships that seems to matter most, rather than any single intervention on its own.

At the same time, the conversation makes clear that outcomes are not fixed by IQ. With the right support, many children with mild intellectual difficulties can do well, and the protective factors that help them often help other children too – which makes a strong case for universal, inclusive provision rather than waiting until problems become severe.

You can read the main JCPPA Advances journal paper discussed in this episode, “Factors associated with better emotional, behavioural and educational outcomes in children with mild intellectual difficulties” https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.70072

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S7 Ep4: Mind the Kids 'Adolescence and Appearance. AI eat your words' Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

AI chatbots can feel warm, human and tailored, but this brings real risks when the advice is wrong or incomplete, especially for vulnerable young people with eating or body-image concerns.

In this Mind the Kids episode “Adolescence and Appearance. AI eat your words”, Dr. Florence Sheen talks to hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour and Prof Umar Toseeb.

They highlight three big issues: we rarely know what sources the chatbot is drawing on; there is no built‑in safeguarding link back to parents, schools or services; and its list‑style “here’s what to do” responses may particularly appeal to perfectionistic or rigid thinkers, potentially fuelling disordered behaviours rather than challenging them.

At the same time, young people are using AI alongside social media and official sites in quite a savvy way – they might go to the NHS for physical symptoms, but to chatbots for lived experience and emotional validation – so opinion and evidence are constantly blended. The Florence, Jane, and Umar argue this makes digital literacy crucial: talk openly with young people about what they see, encourage them to check information against other sources, and model responsible use rather than banning AI outright.

They also call for independent, transparent evaluation of any AI tools aimed at youth mental health, and for developers to work with researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience so that future systems are both safer and better able to support real-world wellbeing.

You can read the main CAMH journal paper discussed in this episode, “How do Artificial Intelligence chatbots respond to questions from adolescent personas about their eating, body weight or appearance?” https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70047

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S7 Ep3: Mind the Kids - Trauma responsive care - It's all about me Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

Trauma-informed and trauma-responsive care are at the heart of this thoughtful conversation about how we support children and young people who have experienced adversity.

In this Mind the Kids episode 'Trauma responsive care: It's all about me', hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour and Professor Umar Toseeb, talk with Dr. Sarah Parry, University of Manchester, about what trauma actually is, how it overlaps with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and why simply “totting up” ACEs scores can miss the individual context and meaning of events for each young person.

They explore the principles that should underpin good practice with all children and adolescents – consistency, curiosity, low emotional tone, and sensitivity to triggers – and ask whether these should be seen as core to high-quality care rather than an “add‑on” labelled trauma-informed.

The discussion moves from definitions to practice: Sarah unpacks the difference between being “trauma-aware”, “trauma-informed” and “trauma-responsive”, arguing that truly responsive care must be embedded across whole organisations and systems, not just in the therapy room. Drawing on her work in residential care and with young people who hear voices, she highlights the importance of framing, coping strategies, choice, safety, and timing in talking therapies, as well as the potential harms of blame and poorly timed debriefing after traumatic events.

The episode also touches on intergenerational and indirect forms of trauma, links with cultural humility, and how environments can be shaped so that all young people – including those in care or from marginalised communities – can engage and recover.

Whether you are a clinician, researcher, educator, or caregiver, this conversation offers a nuanced, practical look at moving beyond buzzwords toward everyday, trauma-responsive environments that genuinely support young people’s mental health.

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S7 Ep2: Mind the Kids - Inpatient Insights Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr Jane Gilmour, honorary consultant clinical psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb, Professor of Psychology at the University of York, explore what happens when children and young people with severe or complex mental health difficulties are admitted to hospital.

Drawing on a powerful real-world case that sparked Umar’s interest, they ask: when is inpatient care really needed, what does a good ward environment look like, and how does admission affect young people and their families over time?

Jane and Umar are joined by Dr Dawn Cutler, Principal Clinical Psychologist, and Guy Larrington, Principal Family Therapist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, who discuss:

Which kinds of difficulties typically lead to admission (including mood disorders, suicidality, eating disorders, and functional symptoms)
How clinicians weigh up risk, severity, and functioning when considering admission
What day-to-day life on a child and adolescent inpatient ward looks like, including education, structure, and relationships with staff
The role of nursing, family involvement, and “shared care” in creating a therapeutic environment
How goal-based outcomes can capture what matters most to young people and their families

The episode also touches on neurodiversity in inpatient settings, systemic inequalities in who is detained, and the transdiagnostic skills and therapeutic relationships that can support recovery across diagnoses. This is a practical, reflective conversation for clinicians, researchers, and anyone wanting to better understand inpatient child and adolescent mental health care.

Get a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://www.acamhlearn.org

S6 Ep8: Mind the Kids: Navigating the service cliff - Supporting autistic youth transition into adulthood Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

For many families of autistic young people, leaving school feels less like a gentle transition and more like falling off a cliff into a fragmented, underfunded adult service system where no one is clearly in charge. In this Mind the Kids episode 'Navigating the service cliff - Supporting autistic youth transition into adulthood', Mark Tebbs speaks with Professor Julie Lowndes Taylor from Vanderbilt University Medical Center about ASSIST (Advocating for SupportS to Improve Service Transition), a 12‑week parent advocacy programme designed to equip families with the knowledge, skills and confidence to navigate that maze.

Drawing on a large multi-site randomised controlled trial of 185 families, they discuss how ASSIST weaves together national-level information on adult disability services with local expert input, how moving the programme online during COVID reshaped both accessibility and peer support, and what the data show about changes in parents’ advocacy skills, service knowledge and actual access to government-funded programmes. The conversation also looks ahead to next steps, including using the ASSIST curriculum to train peer navigators, tackling structural barriers such as underfunding and provider shortages, and ensuring that efforts to boost advocacy do not inadvertently widen existing inequities.

You can read the main JCPP paper discussed in this episode, “Effects of a parent advocacy intervention on service access for transition-aged autistic youth,” via https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70036

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S7 Ep1: Mind the Kids - Tics: Education, Education, Education Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

In this special episode of Mind the Kids, “Tics: Education, Education, Education”, hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour, Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb from the University of York, take a deep dive into Tourette’s syndrome—what it is, how it manifests, and how it’s often misunderstood.

Inspired by the BAFTA award-winning film I, Swear, Jane and Umar discuss the difference between types of tics, what Tourette’s looks like in real life versus in media portrayals, and the realities for children and young people living with the condition today.

Their conversation spans everything from neurological and functional tics to the challenges of recognition, school experiences, and how we can all respond with greater empathy and understanding.

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S6 Ep7: Mind the Kids: Lessons from the ABCD data revolution Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

This episode of 'Mind the Kids: Lessons from the ABCD data revolution' unpacks why “how we measure puberty” really matters for understanding adolescent mental health and development. Professor Adriene Beltz talks to Mark Tebbs about the huge US Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which is following nearly 12,000 young people over 10 years with regular brain scans and surveys, giving an unprecedented window into how early experiences shape later outcomes.

While investigating multisite pain and sex differences, her team stumbled on a problem: researchers using ABCD data were often relying on a convenient categorical puberty score (pre‑, early, mid‑, late, post‑puberty) that drops information and heavily weights the onset of menstruation, rather than using a richer continuous score based on all five pubertal development items. Their analyses show the continuous score is generally more reliable, better aligned with existing puberty research, and less distorted by big “jumps” around menarche, especially for girls.

The conversation becomes a wider call to action: if puberty timing and tempo can shape lifelong trajectories in mental health, pain, and social experiences, then getting the measurement wrong risks misleading conclusions and missed opportunities for prevention. Adriene urges researchers to be thoughtful and transparent about how they score puberty in large datasets, to report clearly what they used, and to remember that puberty is a normative but highly sensitive transition where context, culture, and support all matter just as much as hormones.

Read the paper 'Research Review: On the (mis)use of puberty data in the ABCD Study® – a systematic review, problem illustration, and path forward' at https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70035

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S6 Ep6: Mind the Kids: Prenatal substance exposure - hope not judgement Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

hThis powerful episode dives into how a mother’s own childhood trauma can quietly shape the emotional lives of her children – and how that cycle can be broken. Drawing on a rare 12‑year study of around 300 mostly Black, highly disadvantaged families in the US Midwest, Dr Meeyoung Min unpacks how her team followed mothers and babies from birth through early adolescence to understand what really drives later mental health.

Far from blaming mothers, the episode situates these risks in a wider context of poverty, limited opportunity, and unresolved trauma, and leans into hope rather than inevitability. Dr Min makes a compelling case for pregnancy and the early postnatal period as a “golden window” for support – from practical help and non‑judgemental social networks to community and faith groups that wrap around both parent and child – showing that with the right support, intergenerational patterns of harm can be disrupted and futures can be changed.

The conversation reveals two major pathways: first, mothers who experienced more childhood maltreatment tend to struggle more with their own mental health, making it harder to stay emotionally available, regulate feelings, and use calm, consistent parenting – all of which is linked to greater anxiety, low mood, and acting‑out behaviours in their 12‑year‑olds. Second, prenatal exposure to substances such as cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana appears to alter developing brain systems involved in stress, independently increasing the risk of externalising behaviour.

You can read the main JCPP paper discussed in this episode, “Intergenerational transmission of maternal childhood maltreatment, prenatal substance exposure, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early adolescence at age 12” via https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70030

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S6 Ep5: Mind the Kids - How motor & social skills shape language learning, as captured by genes Feb 12, 2026

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What if a baby’s wobbly reach for a spoon or a make-believe tea party could quietly change the way language unfolds? In this episode of Mind The Kids, “Building Blocks: How motor and social skills shape language learning, as captured by genes” host Mark Tebbs talks with Dr Beate St Pourcain and Dr Ellen Verhoeff from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics about what it really means to develop language in a developing body.

Drawing on their JCPP study of over 6,000 children in the ALSPAC cohort, they follow a developmental cascade that starts with early gross motor milestones like sitting and crawling, moves through culturally shaped self-care and pretend-play skills like using a spoon or hosting a tea party, and then flows into vocabulary and grammar between 15 and 38 months. Along the way, they unpack how genetics and environment intertwine, why social interactions and playful routines act as gateways into language rather than just nice “add-ons,” and what this might mean for parents, carers, clinicians and educators who want to support communication in both autistic and non-autistic children.
You can read the main JCPP paper discussed in this episode, “Developing language in a developing body: genetic associations of infant gross motor behaviour and self-care/symbolic actions with emerging language abilities” via https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70021

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S6 Ep5: Mind the Kids - Genetic clues to classroom struggles Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

Why do some children find learning a little harder, and could their genes hold part of the answer? In this episode of Mind the Kids, entitled ‘Genetic clues to classroom struggles’, host Mark Tebbs talks with Dr. Marie-Pier Larose from the University of Turku about her recent JCPP paper.

They delve into how children’s genetic predispositions—especially those linked to attention and behaviour—can influence how they learn and thrive in school. Marie-Pier shares insights from a major international study exploring the connection between early attention difficulties, mental health, and academic achievement. The discussion highlights the power of early support, the role of teachers and parents, and why understanding these genetic clues can help children reach their full potential—both in the classroom and beyond.

For more details read the JCPP paper ‘Associations between genetic predisposition to mental health problems and academic achievement: a developmental perspective using two population-based cohorts’ Marie-Pier Larose, Isabel Schuurmans, Edward D. Barker, Liliana Garcia Mondragon, Henning Tiemeier, Irwin Waldman, Charlotte Cecil. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70043

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